18 tools that should be in every content creator’s toolbox in 2019

Nov 12, 2018

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Whether you’re a marketer, editor, writer or designer, working in media, healthcare, or education… content is king. And in order to produce the best possible content, you need the right tools. There are now thousands of technologies that were built to make the lives of content creators everywhere less stressful and much more simple – by simplifying communication, speeding up creation, and everything in between. Here’s a look 18 of those tools that should be in your toolbox (if they aren’t already).

1. Hootsuite

Why you need it: Social media management tools like Hootsuite are critical for taking the stress away from the everyday chaos of managing and producing social media campaigns – so you can spend more time on creating posts, engaging with audiences, and keeping track of the 24-hour news cycle.

2. Slack

What it is: Slack keeps companies connected by providing teams with a streamlined communications platform that enhances projects and all-around decision making.

Why you need it: With outside app integration and easy search functions, Slack is much more efficient than email when it comes to collaborating with a team.

3. Adobe Creative Suite

What it is: The Adobe Creative Suite is every designer’s must-have. It’s comprised of applications for graphic design, video-editing, and web development, which all require a monthly subscription for use.

Why you need it: The applications give visual content creators, who are adept at producing visuals from the ground up, the ultimate customizability and control over virtually all elements of the creative process.

4. Canva

Why you need it: The website has an easy-to-use interface, offers free downloads, and allows users to format visual assets for a variety of social platforms.

5. Eyedropper (Google Chrome)

What it is: This Google Chrome extension generates HEX codes for any color on any webpage of the browser. You simply hover the eyedropper cursor over the desired color, an the code will populate.

Why you need it: Eyedropper is great for getting your branding’s exact color code for any branding materials.

6. Wipster

What it is: Wipster is a video feedback and approval tool that allows comments to be pinned on specific video frames. It logs ongoing drafts for review and integrates into several publishing platforms.

Why you need it: No more hovering over editors’ shoulders or writing out lists of timecodes for edits. Pinning comments frame-by-frame allows videos to act as a living document. Click directly on what needs to be changed and work with editors without being in the same room.

7. Spredfast

What it is: Spredfast is a social media marketing platform used by some of the biggest media agencies out there. It helps you to connect to viewers by improving and rounding out how you execute your social strategies.

Why you need it: Who doesn’t need a platform that helps you reach your audience? Spredfast can help you optimize your social media strategies by letting you keep everything in one place, so you can share more with your audience, faster.

8. IRIS TV

What it is: IRIS.TV is a video optimization tool that tracks analytics and creates custom digital strategies for increasing views, engagement and retention.

Why you need it: Don’t leave autoplay and playlist curation to chance. Their deep well of analytics makes informed decisions and recommends how and what video to show viewers.

9. Google Drive

What it is: Google Drive is an essential tool for all content creators because it allows you to store all kinds of files (photos, music, movies, docs) on a cloud.

Why you need it: If you or your business share and move important files, Google Drive is an excellent storage source with up to 15GB free.

10. Skimm

What it is: The Skimm is a daily newsletter delivered to your inbox full of the most up-to-date and trending news items.

Why you need it: Browsing a newsletter, like The Skimm, at the start of your day is an easy way to stay in the loop before you head off to work.

11. Trint

What it is: Trint is an automated-speech-to-text platform that will allow the user to correct errors made in the transcription

Why you need it: Trint can help you revolutionize your workflow. Instead of spending hours trying to transcribe something, you can plug it into Trint and it will generate it for you, allowing you to focus on other projects.

12. Periscope Data

What it is: Periscope Data enables companies to make informed decisions using their wide array of dashboards and charts.

Why you need it: Easily share and customize data sets in charts and page dashboards to suit your needs at any given moment.

13. Pars.ly

What it is: Parse.ly tracks real-time and historic audience engagement for web and video.

Why you need it: What could be more important than being able to track which articles your audience is viewing and engaging with most? Parse.ly takes it a step further than some of their competitors with in-depth historic data and filters for everything from tags to verticals and individual writers.

14. Trello

What it is: Trello is a collaboration tool where you can organize projects and aggregate information to use for a later date.

Why you need it: Trello can almost anything. Its message board format allows you to take quick notes and schedule projects for the future. It offers integration with most major apps and services so posting and sharing across multiple platforms is a breeze.

15. Salesforce

What it is: Salesforce is a customer relationship management tool, which allows you to best connect with interact with potential, and current customers.

Why you need it: Salesforce does a lot, including automatically updating reports on revenue, workflow automations that make communication between teams much easier, and maybe most importantly, the ability to integrate with basically any other platform.

16. Automated Insights

What it is: Automated Insights is a natural language generation platform that takes data and transforms it into an easily readable narrative.

Why you need it: Create detailed reports and studies at scale on all types of data with the help of Automated Insights.

17. Access to extensive media libraries

What it is: Top media providers, such as Getty, Reuters and the Associated Press, give content creators access to photos and video they need to produce high-quality editorial projects.

Why you need it: Storytelling would be a difficult job without media. Certain news items, like the raging wildfires in California, demand you find the best media to accompany your article or video.

18. Wibbitz

What it is: Wibbitz is an automated video creation platform. Using AI, the product intelligently summarizes articles and pulls relevant media assets to create scenes comprised in a bite-sized video. These videos supplement articles by providing readers a viewing experience that aids the storytelling.

Why you need it: Wibbitz’s platform optimizes video creation and expedites the editing process, helping publishers and brands create a bulk of videos in a fraction of the time. The tool is intuitive for the novice user and doesn’t require a background in video editing.